Monday, April 29, 2013

I can't believe we are at the start of another week, where do the weekend's go, although next weekend is a bank holiday weekend here in the UK, yippeeee. As it's Monday, it's time for a new theme for the LLC Girls to follow and I'm (Tracy) kicking it off, and it is........ "April Showers brings May Flowers". I'm sure your in for lots of different interpretations this week, but for me the showers have been and the flowers are out to bloom in abundance.

I coloured this cute LOTV image with copics, aren't they adorable. The frantage has been out again around the image and on the 6mm pearls which had a coating of both the shabby green and the aged wine. The gorgeous papers are from the MajaDesign Spring Basics collection, all links at the bottom of the post. I have again chosen the 12x12 so that I can create my shaped card and although you can create a shaped card using the 6x6, it does turn out rather on the small side.

Here's a close up of the flowers I used, KortandGodt Rolled Roses and Hortensia's, Chrysanthemums, lilac poppies, spray flowers in lilac and white, and one of the new lacy chantelle prima flowers. You will also notice the little berry pin and some feathers. The leafs are cut with my new favourite die by Marianne Design swirl and leaf die.

I have frantaged the wooden butterfly embellishment also, hehehe, this time using Aged Wine and Shabby White. I just can't stop myself and added one of the new prima typo bulbs with the sentiment "US". Thought it suited this cute little couple.

Here's a close up of the tag that pops out of the top right hand corner. I have used vintage seam binding, lilac pastello lace, heart Amour lace, string pearls and added another prima Chantelle flower to the centre. I have also added the rose heart charm, again the perfect accompaniment for this adorable couple card. Oh, I mustn't forget the little love hanger, which of course also had a coating of aged wine frantage.

As usual all links to all of the products used are below. Don't forget to pop back tomorrow for Tina's interpretation of the theme.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Louise here and I'm soooooo exited about this weeks theme, we are showcasing traveling projects. I haven't travelled many exotic or far away countries but my absolute dream is to be able to go to Australia at one point. I have so many gorge friends there and I'm very intrigued about the landscape, the outback, and of course the amazing animals. Too see a koala bear or kangaroo IRL would be awesome and whilst there I wouldn't mind seeing Sydney - in fact I wouldn't have minded that a least bit ;)

Fortunately both me and hubby dream about this so it may come true at some point. In case you are wondering, that's me on the suitcase, hurrying to catch the plane to Sydney ;)

I usually never put myself in Tilda's shoes. I quit often make up stories around the lovely images though.

I've cut out the suitcase using my silhouette Cameo and its a box that opens but I haven't done my packaging yet so I guess I will be traveling very lightly ;) lol!

The Tilda is from an older collection, "Bon Voyage" released in 2010, she is colored with my di pads on 300 g watercolor paper. The big lush lace flower is new in stock over at Live and Love crafts and is by Prima, you can find the link to take you straight to it at the bottom of my post via Inlinkz. The

frantage I've used around the image is the shabby pink one. MMM...such a lovely thing for a pink addict ;)

Thank you so much for looking :)

Be sure to stop by tomorrow when Tracy is back to rock your socks off ;)

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Sandy here with my take on this week's theme, traveling.
I recently bought a stamp set from Whimsy called "Parisian Romance, so I didn't have to think twice about what to make today...

Hop on the love train; we're heading for the City of Love!

The papers are all from Maja Design's Vintage Summer Basics Collection, the image is from Crafts and Me. She's called Heather, but she looks pretty French to me, or what do you think?!

The letters used to spell out "Amour" is also from Whimsy, and additionally I used the beautiful Carte Postale Stamp to add some interest to the papers. With so many stamps, I could hardly fit any embellishments, but I did squeeze in the Eiffel Tower charm, some bark hearts, and a few flowers. :-)

The bark hearts, the charm, and some of the roses were frantaged with Shabby Pink.

That's it from me today, but before you take off, just a quick reminder of this weekend's special offer:

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Hi everyone! It's Alyce here continuing on with my guest design gig ;) This week the theme is travel and I wanted to do something a little bit different so I picked this super cute image Turtle Love by Saturated Canary. Instead of travelling to a direct place (though she could be travelling to the Galápagos Islands as Sandy suggested ;), I wanted to make it about the exploration and discovery of travelling.

I love those little letters from Pion! I could use them on everything...AND I did try a little bit of frantaging down the sides!! Ooooh love it! :) Here's a little bit of a closeup.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Hi, Becky here today with my inspirational post. This week we have the theme of travelling, this stumped me for a while, but then I remembered this stamp, Ride With Me, from Lili Of The Valley.

I've used my favourite 12x12 sheet from the new Maja Design Vintage Spring collection, the edges have been distressed with Walnut Stain.

I was just about to start assembling my card when the postie came with a package of goodies, so I got to use my new Reinette Lace and Pearl Lace too :)

I've used distress markers to colour the image in and used shabby white frantage round the image and on the metal corner. The teeny tags for the sentiment are from my stash.

My arty shot of the flowers and pins, you can also see that I've added stickles and picket fence crackle paint. The roses are from my stash. I've used a little packet to be able to add a heart tag behind the image.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Sandy here; we are not exactly sailing through the upgrade of the store, however we have made some progress. It's too early to say yet though when the store will be accessible again, thanks for bearing with us.

Tina has used papers from Maja Design's Vintage Summer Basics Collection.
The addition of the jute fabric, the jute twine and the web ribbon does wonder for the Nautic theme, don't ya think?!!

Here's a close up of the gorgeous charm, Grandpa's Pocket Watch, available in two different sizes; a mini and a larger version that Tina has used here. Restocks of the larger sized one will arrive later this week.

Thanks for stopping by today.
Please visit us again tomorrow to see where Becky takes us!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Before I get started on my card for you today, I would just like to thank you all for the wonderful comments I received last week on my first video tutorial on Frantage. I was staggered to hear people talking about it and also being mentioned in people's Facebook coversations, so thank you sooooooooo very much for instilling confidence in me to possibly do a second video, lol. I know you have kept Sandy busy with your frantage orders, so much so that that the store sold out on several colours. Fear not though, a new order was immediately placed and will be available in store this week. Speaking of the Store, it is closed today for some upgrades that Sandy has been planning for a while. It won't be long before you can recommence your shopping, so please keep checking back. You will however be continued to be inspired by the incredibly talented team right here on the blog.

Onto my card. The theme this week for us LLC Girls is "Travel". I have used the Maja Design Spring Basics 3rd April and went with a traditional sailor blue and white, plus I really love blue and I really love Maja Design. The base was cut using a Go-Kreate Die.

Isn't the Queen Victoria 50mm lace beautiful. I have used the Eiffel tower charm and added a Corked Vial with some micra beads at the bottom and on the seashell, to give that seaside feel.

I added a little frantage around the spellbinders floral oval and on the LaLaLand Flag Banner. I framed the image with the 6mm beads, well a seaside card wouldn't be complete without some pearls, right?

All edges were distressed with walnut stain distress ink and a dotting here and there of white gesso.

Hugs Tracy x

Be sure to pop back tomorrow when Tina will be inspiring you.

Please note whilst the store is out of action the thumbnail links below will not work.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

It;s already Sunday again and me, Louise is back to do my best to try inspire you.

As some of you may know I'm a summer type girl and guess what...some days this week it has felt as if Spring is finally here, which feels awesome!

So that;s just perfect because this weeks theme is just that - Spring!

As always I'm the last one in our amazing DT to showcase my make and the girls has been busy creating the most awe things for you all. So do not forget to check those out too.

For me Spring is the second best season of the year and it can still be pretty cold here in Sweden til Summer hits. I was a little lost on what to do because there are so many things you could do but when Signe, my oldest daughter went outside this Wednesday as the sun was beaming in just a dress and a parasol saying: -"Mummy, look at me, I'm outside in the summer sun" I immediately thought of this oldie but goldie Tilda:

So these apples are quickly becoming my all time LLC fav! At least this second as Sandy stocks so many gorge stuffy stuffs. The charm is so sweet too and fits right on here, they are strawberries which really are more of a Summer thing here but...as Signe is as sweet as those they needed to go on ;)

The flower shape is cut using my silhouette Cameo and I've used one of the amazing Pion design papers from the "Alma's sewing room" collection. And well...I keep on telling Sandy she stocks the BEST Seam binding ribbon and so I tend to use it on every creation ;) The sentiment is from Stempelglede.

As always you will find all the products I've used listed at the end of this posting via Inlinkz.

I'm hoping you will like today's make :)
Be sure to come back tomorrow when Tracy is back to sweep you off your feet :)
Lots of love,

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Hi Everyone,
Sandy, here with a very late post today, sorry about that. I had a delivery of some new products yesterday, so I've been busy today adding them to the website today.
I have used a couple of them today, the rest you can check out in the News category.

Too bad I missed out on the first real Spring day, the weather has been glorious today!
The cherry trees are blooming in the garden and it looked so pretty against the clearblue and cloudfree sky, and that's what inspired me for today's card:

Once again I have combined papers from Maja Design's Vintage Spring and Vintage Summer Basics collection. The image is from Pion Design.

Here you get a better look at the frantage embossing:

Speaking of frantage; unfortunately my delivery has been delayed, so it won't be here until next week. :-(

If you are a subscriber of the LLC Newsletter and have had a chance to check your e-mails, you are already aware of this, but for those who are not, I'd just like to inform you about planned maintenance work next week.

As of Monday morning 9 AM GMT, the Live & Love Crafts website will be taken offline whilst we upgrade the software the store is running on, and add some new features and functionalities.
Apologies for this obvious inconvenience; I'll of course make an announcement announce when the site is back up again.

Here are some close up pics:

The middle rose is one of the new Metal Roses, they come in silver (20mm) and Copper (11mm):

New are also these Vintage Crochet Flowers, available in four different colours: